Costs have spiraled down and made powerful Blu-ray players distinctly more affordable. We've chosen ten players under $300, ranging from budget models hovering around $130 to pricier, feature-packed machines at the higher end of the spectrum.

LG's player comes in at the higher end of the price spectrum--but we think it's worth it, for a few reasons. You can stream video from the Internet, CinemaNow, or Netflix directly over an ethernet connection or through the system’s built-in Wi-Fi (this is one of the few players to offer such an option).

Unfortunately, the less-than-perfect remote requires some getting used to, and the player does little to improve the image quality of standard DVDs.

While we found the LG BD370 to be a superior option for Blu-ray discs, it didn't fare nearly as well in upconverting regular DVDs. In our tests, though, it was the fastest player around, loading a disc in just 34 seconds.

The on-screen menus are easy to use, and the player can also access online content (CinemaNow, Netflix On Demand, YouTube) via the ethernet port.

With a $300 price tag, the Sony PlayStation 3 is an expensive choice if you're simply looking for a Blu-ray player--and it certainly doesn't offer quite the same image quality as a stand-alone player does.

But if you have need of a game console (be aware that it is backward-compatible only with PS1 games, not PS2 titles), the PS3 is a versatile choice that improves on its predecessor. We also appreciate the slimmer design and lower power consumption of the newer version (not pictured here).

In our tests this model impressively handled regular DVDs (as well as both color and black-and-white Blu-ray). Sony intelligently included two USB ports (one in the front and one in the back), Wi-Fi connectivity, and a power-saving option, as well.

If Sony had also endowed the BDP-S560 with the multimedia options available elsewhere, this player would have been unstoppable.

Limited extras and an awkward remote for the Toshiba BDX2000 let us down initially. But for a bargain price, this player does one thing well: It brings Blu-ray discs and DVDs to life. Its image quality was superior in just about all of our tests.